Shallow Reflection
by Sifl-senpai
Summary: The same guardian angel gets mixed feelings from all he watches. This is a collection of Heroes being guided by the Past whether they are aware of it or not. Updated sporadically.
1. Shallow Reflection

Almost everything around him was like a page torn straight from the old tome his grandmother would read to him at night- the designs adorning the wall murals, the fountains of the gardens, the paintings on the walls

Even the monsters parading the halls were picture-perfect.

This land is frozen in time, the King of Red Lions had told him, but beneath the placid surface a great power is sleeping.

Regardless of its storybook innocence, his mentors words were true- whatever spell or charm had been cast on this place had stolen its identity, but it had not completely blanketed the evidence of some greater presence lurking beneath the lifeless colors of this undersea world. He felt it calling to him, a soundless message so powerful that he could feel it in his core. Sloughing the nagging feeling off, he stepped through the entranceway and began to explore his surroundings.

Cautiously, he stared down each of the grotesque guards as he passed by, waiting for one to suddenly spring to life and attack him. As he passed each one, he fought the urge to laugh. He had never seen one up close and only now realized how comically these monsters were shaped: This one had a ridiculously small head for its enormous body; another was overbalanced by its outrageously sagging lower lip. With a suppressed grin, he wondered if someone had molded these monsters in these forms as some sort of a joke.

Taking the steps two at a time, he was overtaken by the sudden feeling of burning anticipation. The silent presence was hard to ignore for long, and he knew that it was watching him. He kept his eyes forward, doing everything he could to not acknowledge his discomfort.

By the time he reached the bottom of the stairs, his anxiety had turned to fear and his fear quickly progressed to terror with each step he took. Soon, he was running as fast as he could to the other archway, desperate to get away from the awful power behind him.

He reached out his hand to the doorway- his escape- and was met with the electric sensation of pain. Flying backwards, he felt a cold sense of doom engulf his heart as he realized that the spell that froze time also ensnared everything that came into its clutches. He was _trapped_.

Breathing heavily, he steeled himself and turned to face the oppressive source of this frightening silence.

The Hero of Time stood triumphantly above him, legendary sword in hand. His stance was strong, deceivingly acting as if all that mattered was the artifact in his clutches, but the boy below him had seen through the illusion and straight into the tricksters blank eyes.

They stared each other down. The boy had no idea as to what the great silence was trying to tell him-or if it was trying to tell him anything at all- but he knew that he could not hide from those passive bronze eyes. Shame faced for reasons he didnt quite understand, he broke contact and focused on the mechanism to open the castles secret passage that was lying at the statues feet.

He tugged at the Master Sword-the Blade of Evils Bane, the Heros weapon- with all of his might. He was small and he was exhausted, but he knew that he had to succeed. He willed it to help him stop the King of Darkness, begged it to aid him in his rescue of his sister, pleaded for it to help him _get out of this forsaken castle_. He felt his hope and confidence wither as he pulled and pulled beneath the suffocating silence that weighed down above him.

Finally, _finally_ the sword gave in to his prayers and slid out of the stone pedestal.

A great noise cut through the suffocating solitude and resounded through the walls of the sunken Hyrule Castle. As the giant suits of armor tipped their swords to him, he could not help but feel that he had shattered much more than the curse of frozen time.

He slew the monsters in the main hall with a surprising ease and confidence, returning them to the puffs of dark smoke they were formed from. The storybook images were now erased forever, the paper they were printed on shredded by his blade and were replaced by what he had done.

Looking up at the Heros statue one last time, he couldnt help but feel as though he had replaced something otherworldly, something _legendary_, when he had pulled the sword. The color had returned to the stone hallways and playful waters of the castle fountain, but something about them seemed distorted and hokey- they were a caricature of what this place had once been; it was nothing but a cheap imitation of the things he knew from the world above the water.

He felt as if he had broken the spell that preserved a great spirit and had pushed it out with his own.

He knew he could never be the same as that hero had been; _that_ hero was the great silence that had pervaded everything, even through the mere memory of the people. Now, his power was bending to the will of this newcomer, this _shallow reflection_, erasing and reforming everything to suit him. The lack of complete silence now felt heavy on his heart.

The statue, eyes now vacant, looked out from the castle hall and onto the vast colorful nothingness that remained.

Link silently left that forsaken fortress.


	2. Sticks and Stones

I do not own the legend of Zelda, y'all!

* * *

The first time, hed appeared as a stained glass window in the church.

The second time, he was a wood block print in a book in the library.

The third time, he was on a mural in the palace.

The fourth time, a reflection in the mirror.

Fifth, the back of the dreamers eyelids.

Sixth was the face beneath his uncle's helmet.

It was impossible to say what all else the boy clad in green had appeared as, and equally impossible to count what number this incarnation was, but he was undeniably the shadow in the trees today.

The forest was really old and still and Link hated how it seemed to be watching him and purposefully leading him in circles. Supposedly, the hero of legend (or, more specifically, the _first _Hero of Legend) had lived in this forest, and died in this forest, and Link figured he was probably still sulking around in it just to pester the newer heroes, too.

He chided himself for thinking something so disrespectful about the hero, the hero of all Hyrule,_ his _hero, and tried once again to focus on finding his way around the woods without getting lost.

Out of the corner of his eye, Link spotted another thug and clumsily began to run away, tripping over sticks and stones and dead bird bones and then finally resorting to using words to hurt him.

Of course, it didnt work and the crook ran even faster towards Links wallet. Whipping around, Link pulled out his sword and lost his footing on the slippery leaves beneath him. He careened into the ground and into a streak of light coming through the trees. Links legs, which were streaming behind him, caught the thief in the neck and sent him downwards as well.

Quick as a flash, Link leapt to his feet in a defensive stance. He expected the crook to get back up and come at him, but, to his surprise, the thug just gave a laugh upon seeing his face in the light Link had stumbled into. He got up and patted the hapless boy on the shoulder.

"I didnt realize you was one of us, kid," he said, punctuating the sentiment with another coarse laugh. "Put 'cher sword down, son. We dont hurt our own in these parts."

Link was greatly insulted and promptly swatted the mans hand off of his shoulder and loudly insisted that he was _not _a thief.

The man just grinned wider and walked off. "Whatever," he called over his shoulder.

Link slammed his blade into the ground and sat on the ground next to it, head in his hands. He was deeply frustrated with how his whole heroic ordeal had marked him as a princess-kidnapping thief and how hunting for a magical sword that may or may not exist in these light deprived woods wasnt making anything any easier. He was so mad that he told the nearest tree exactly what he thought about its stagnant, thief infested, goddess-forsaken home.

He couldnt help but notice that its shadow, looking suspiciously like a certain mythical hero with a familiar conical hat, shook like it had heard the funniest thing in the world. A howling laugh came in the form of a strong gust of wind that nearly knocked Links own cap off his head. He blinked in surprise.

There was no wind in the Lost Woods.

He yanked his sword out of the ground and ran in the direction the breeze was blowing towards.

It ran him around in circles and over tree stumps and through logs hollowed and hallowed by the ravages of Time and under bushes and beside stones and through the holes in the ground and away from every crook in the woods and then left him stranded in a space that looked suspiciously like where he had started.

He swore a few times and looked up at the dusty yellow sky. How foolish could this get? He turned to his left and began to meander in that direction until a subtle thud stopped him in his tracks. He turned around and saw a yellow bird that had fallen from the sky, presumably from over the forests canopy. After all, Link had seen absolutely no animals in this forest that werent Aghanims cursed pets.

Its tail feathers were scattered about around it and the few plumes that were left in the birds rear were cocked straight behind it, aligned perfectly with its pointed beak, like an arrow. _Go that way_, it seemed to say.

Link cast a suspicious glance to the shadows around the bases of the nearby trees before cautiously walking to the bird and following the brush it signified. He lifted his hand and moved aside the bushes in his way, inwardly groaning as he began another wild goose chase.

He was completely baffled to see the Master Swords altar in the clearing behind the vines he moved aside.

Hands shaking, he marveled at how completely untouched and pristine the artifact was amongst the moss-covered trees. It looked like it was made yesterday. He began the walk up the marble stairs and towards the pedestal, rifling through his pack to find the Book of Mudora that could translate the runes at its base. Finally, he put the book away and put his tremulous hands on the majestic swords hilt. It came out easily.

Slowly, reverently, he lifted the sword over his head. He didnt notice how the sword emanated a faint light that chased the shadows away.

* * *

I said this was gonna be a one shot, but I guess I lied. OOOOPS.

This is A Link to The Past, my personal second favorite Link. If I do continue this, you'll be seein' him every other chapter as this may just be a dump of stories of Hero of fill-in-blank meets Hero of fill-in-blank.


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